Halladaytastic - Phillies 5, Giants 2

The Phillies kicked off their first long road trip of the year in fine fashion tonight, beating the Giants and Tim Lincecum 5-2. Yes, that's right. Roy Halladay and the Phillies beat Tim Lincecum at AT&T park. AND despite the presence of Laynce Nix and Juan Pierre in the lineup. It was a magical night.

The Phils got things started early against Lincecum, scoring four runs in the first inning. He didn't look like himself at all, and the Phillies took advantage. They scored another run off Lincecum in the fourth inning, and he was done after six innings having allowed eight hits and five earned runs. Besides the first and the fourth, Lincecum looked more like himself, but he still seems to be struggling to find his groove.

Halladay had trouble in just two innings, the first and the fourth. Both times, he came away allowing just one run. He cruised through the remaining innings, inducing several first pitch pop-ups and generally keeping his pitch count down. The Giants just didn't make Halladay work very hard, and despite those innings and their troublesome baserunners, Halladay went eight innings and threw 109 pitches. In 23 innings, Halladay has allowed just three runs total.

Fielding of all sorts was on display tonight. There was the good, with Hunter Pence Spidermanning it onto the outfield wall while making a leaping catch. There was the strange, with Freddy Galvis diving at nothing when a Pablo Sandoval grounder hit the first base bag and popped up in the air. And then there was the downright ugly, with Aubrey Huff, Angel Pagan, and Emmanuel Burriss each barely missing or totally misjudging a ball in play. Lincecum wasn't exactly sharp in the first inning, but things could have ended much differently had the fielding not been sort of incompetent.

Tomorrow, Joe Blanton squares off against newly extended Madison Bumgarner, who already wins the "Most Oldtimey Sounding Name" matchup.

Halladaytastic Fangraph:

Source: FanGraphs

Regrettable Larry Anderson Quote of the Game: Top of the first inning, "I know he's a rookie, but I don't see how you face Freddy Galvis here." Galvis promptly struck out, flailing at a pitch in the dirt.